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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Introduction to Ancient Egypt and Its Civilization by University of Pennsylvania

4.6
stars
2,686 ratings

About the Course

Colossal pyramids, imposing temples, golden treasures, enigmatic hieroglyphs, powerful pharaohs, strange gods, and mysterious mummies are features of Ancient Egyptian culture that have fascinated people over the millennia. The Bible refers to its gods, rulers, and pyramids. Neighboring cultures in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean wrote about its god-like kings and its seemingly endless supply of gold. The Greeks and Romans describe aspects of Egypt's culture and history. As the 19th century began, the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt highlighted the wonders of this ancient land, and public interest soared. Not long after, Champollion deciphered Egypt's hieroglyphs and paved the way for other scholars to reveal that Egyptian texts dealt with medicine, dentistry, veterinary practices, mathematics, literature, and accounting, and many other topics. Then, early in the 20th century, Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun and its fabulous contents. Exhibitions of this treasure a few decades later resulted in the world's first blockbuster, and its revival in the 21st century has kept interest alive. Join Dr. David Silverman, Professor of Egyptology at Penn, Curator in Charge of the Egyptian Section of the Penn Museum, and curator of the Tutankhamun exhibitions on a guided tour of the mysteries and wonders of this ancient land. He has developed this online course and set it in the galleries of the world famous Penn Museum. He uses many original Egyptian artifacts to illustrate his lectures as he guides students as they make their own discovery of this fascinating culture....

Top reviews

SE

Oct 6, 2022

This was an excellent course in the history of ancient Egypt. I have always been fascinated by their culture & this course taught me many things that i was not aware of. I really enjoyed this course.

AR

May 20, 2023

The course was very interactive and offers a tons of activities. The teacher was very nice and the teaching was very easy to understand. The assignments were a bit challenging but very interesting.

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751 - 775 of 817 Reviews for Introduction to Ancient Egypt and Its Civilization

By Gary S

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Mar 5, 2022

it was ok easy to follow

By Joy F

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Aug 19, 2022

Interesting information.

By Varun N

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May 26, 2020

Good one for beginners

By Robert B C

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Jan 13, 2019

Very intensive course!

By Joyce U

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Apr 14, 2019

I'm learning so much.

By Elisabetta F

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Oct 9, 2017

It's interesting .

By Olivia B

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May 12, 2022

Very interesting

By Mark G C

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Apr 24, 2020

Love course

By Catherine F

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Jun 16, 2019

Interesting.

By Jp C

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May 29, 2017

Interesting

By Jamima S

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Jul 6, 2019

Loved it!

By EL B M

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Apr 27, 2019

NICE

By Ygor K B

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Feb 19, 2019

good

By Brinda J

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Dec 5, 2016

-

By Mylène

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Dec 16, 2016

The course was extremely easy. I hoped it would be more of a challenge. No homework, only a 10 questions test every week (that is also extremely easy). As someone who's always been interested in Ancient Egypt, I already knew some things and ended up being able to pass the tests with 90-100% without even following the course. It's really an introduction for people who are pretty much new to the subject, so I'd recommend it, but for people who are looking for something more, you might find it boring. Even though the teacher is nice, the description of the course made me hope that it would be more interesting visually. I mostly read the transcriptions instead of watching the videos, because the teacher would just stand there and talk without moving, and it was not stimulating to me.

By Irena M

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Aug 2, 2021

The first three weeks of the course are rather bland and hard to follow. They mostly cosist of listing the pharaohs and the gods. The later weeks are more interesting and easier to follow as the lectures have more narrative. The presentations appear sterile and robotic, difficult to relate to. This feature of the course has less to do with the instructor (he appears quite engaging in the last lecture where he interviews one of the preservation specialist. The videos are overproduced; the instructor is not looking into the camera. Most of us chose to study through MOOCs rather than just reading the material because of personal connection, even an imitated one. The production does not aim to create one. The course could be improved.

By Evgeny P

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Jun 25, 2020

The course provides conservative vision of problematic of the pyramids. In modern course I would expect from the lecturer to deal with the controversial statements, rather ending the interesting part by calling to conservative theories "facts". It is essential to remember that the history written by the writers, the course even provides an example. If thousands years from now the same approach will be applied on excavations on Sophia church in Istanbul, then it will be declared without doubt as a mosque. For the good science it is essential to remain place to doubt the current theories and solutions, and be able to revise them once having a controversial facts. This course not trying to deal with controversial facts.

By Gerton H

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Jan 30, 2021

Although the different chapters gave a good, broad introduction to Ancient Egypt, I think it could get a little attention to make it a better experience. Professor Silverman unfortunately didn’t really shine in the little videos, only in the very last episode (‘In the Artifact Lab’) his nicer personality shines through his presentation. The quizzes were easy, multiple choice is of course about the only way to test the knowledge in this course. I would have liked it though if, after answering the questions and getting a grade, I could read some deeper explanation or summaries about these questions asked.

Oh whatever, I still liked this course. Thank you professor Silverman and Penn University!

By Alice B

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Mar 28, 2021

It was okay in terms of the content and what I actually learnt. However, my main criticism would be with the quizzes. Some of the questions were about things not covered in the lessons and required additional reading. Which in itself is not a bad thing, but considering the quizzes are meant to be about things learnt in the lesson material, it would have made more sense to stick to lesson material only as not everyone doing this course will have time (or the money) for the extra resources. Also, any question that were incorrect, just had an X by them and the correct answer wasn't given - meaning if you got a question wrong you weren't told the right answer so couldn't learn anything.

By Judy P

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Jun 21, 2020

The lecturer is obviously knowledgeable, but his delivery seems dispassionate. I would have enjoyed seeing him with a chalk board, outlining his points and personalizing the information with references to his own archaeological experiences.

The text accompanying the videos seems to be computer-generated. It has sentence fragments, misspellings, and artificial paragraph segmentation that does not follow the vocal presentation. English is my primary language, and that appears to be true for the instructor. Because I am a person who learns more by reading that by listening, the inaccuracies in the text were a distraction from the fascinating subject matter.

By Sarah Z

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Sep 2, 2023

This course - although informative - was a complete and utter whipping to get through. I actually started it 7 years ago and quit 1/3 of the way through because it was so completely and utterly boring to sit and listen to.

Years later, I forgot I had taken the course before and re-enrolled, and realized it was "that" course; however, I disciplined myself to finish it.

Again, lots of good info; however, it's delivered by a monotonous droning reading of information by the same person in front of the same background for the entire course. Granted, there are images interspersed in the lectures, but it's difficult to listen to hour after hour.

By Sarah M

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Jun 28, 2020

I enjoyed learning about Ancient Egypt; However, I found the instructor to be monotonous. Dr. Silverman is a brilliant man, but does not seem to enjoy lecturing. I think this course could use a revamp with more engaging, interactive lectures, as well as some editing in the video transcriptions. I would also suggest more diagrams and visual depictions of timelines for those of us who are visual learners. I don't mean to be negative; I just think constructive criticism is a handy tool to ensure improvement.

By Sara C F

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Apr 23, 2020

I found much of the information to be accurate, however; many mistakes were made during the filming of the videos. I have noticed that no corrections were made to the quizzes after videos were finalized, leaving many questions to have more than one answer from the notes taken, or for questions to not have been addressed at al during the lessons. Overall the course was information but is in need of editing.

By Jigna C

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Nov 12, 2021

Beautiful and wonderful subject but narration is sometimes boring and lifeless. anyone can read a prompt and give lecture. But that will not enthrall.

To be engaged to this subject the narration has to keep you engaged. Am sorry but had to mention it.

The professor may be excellent in his research but sometimes for these courses we need good emotive speakers.

By Germain

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Jun 22, 2021

The chronology part was fascinating, but in terms of pure civilization I was expecting more on the topics of arts and craft, medicine and architecture. Nevertheless, the trivia about pyramids, mummies and mythology is really well-written and fun to follow! Thank you for the opportunity!